Ken Judge (15 January 1958 – 15 January 2016) was an Australian rules footballer and coach.

Playing career

Hawthorn Football Club

Recruited from

Western Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

club

East Fremantle East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

, Judge played for

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

from 1983 until 1986, and made an immediate impact playing in a premiership in his first season and winning the Hawks' Best First Year Player award. Judge also played in the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...

s of

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

and

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

but struggled for selection in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

Brisbane Bears

he moved to the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/ ...

, where he played without making much impact in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

and

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

Coaching career

Carlton Football Club assistant coach (1995)

In 1995, Judge was appointed as an assistant coach at , Carlton had the most successful premiership season to that time. On the strength of a recommendation from Carlton Football Club senior coach David Parkin, who was also a former Hawthorn captain and premiership coach.

Hawthorn Football Club senior coach (1996-1999)

Judge was appointed senior coach of

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

from 1996 until 1999, finishing 8th and therefore reaching the finals in his first year. However, in the following years Hawthorn struggled and finished 15th in the 1997 season and 13th in the 1998 season before just missing out of the finals in 1999, finishing 9th. Judge then resigned as Hawthorn senior coach, with a year to run on his contract. Judge was then replaced by

Peter Schwab Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

as Hawthorn Football Club senior coach.

West Coast Eagles senior coach (2000-2001)

Judge then returned to Western Australia as senior coach of the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football L ...

, after

Mick Malthouse Michael Raymond Malthouse (born 17 August 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After finishing his playing career, Malthou ...

stepped down as West Coast Eagles senior coach at the end of the 1999 season. Judge coached West Coast Eagles for the 2000 and 2001 AFL seasons. He was unsuccessful during his time there, where West Coast Eagles under Judge finished 13th in the 2000 season and 14th in the 2001 season before he was sacked at the end of the 2001 season and replaced by

John Worsfold John Richard Worsfold (born 25 September 1968) is a former Australian rules football coach and player. He was the senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) between October 2015 and September 2020. He pr ...

as West Coast Eagles senior coach.

Radio career

Following the end of his coaching career, Judge worked for the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

(ABC) as a sports commentator for

ABC Radio Grandstand ABC Sport, formerly ABC Radio Grandstand, is a live radio sports focused commentary and talk-back program which runs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) local radio network across Australia and on one digital-only station. History Fr ...

. In 2009, he apologised for an on-air gaffe when he referred to fellow commentator

Jon Dorotich Jonathan Michael Dorotich (born 27 April 1962) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and for the South Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football Le ...

as "bigger than Hitler's last gas bill".

Death

Judge died on his 58th birthday in Perth, Western Australia on 15 January 2016 from multiple myeloma. He had been diagnosed with the blood condition in mid-2010 and had undergone several bouts of chemotherapy treatment. He was laid to rest on 25 January in Perth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judge, Ken 1958 births 2016 deaths West Coast Eagles coaches Brisbane Bears players East Fremantle Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club Premiership players Hawthorn Football Club coaches Western Australian State of Origin players East Fremantle Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Australian rules football commentators Deaths from cancer in Western Australia Deaths from multiple myeloma One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players